AP European History Chapter 22: Life in the Emerging Urban Society in the 19th Century

Poor Laws (1850s)

English law - Poor and or those who could not pay their debts sent to work houses for a period of service.. Workhouse conditions were often dangerous and abusive.

Mary Ann Evans

English novelist- wrote under the pen name George Eliot, - realism.- most well known works explore common people going about life - Middle March and Silas Marner

Charles Dickens

English writer whose novels depicted and criticized social injustice (1812-1870) of British society. Addressed issues of poverty and abandonment- especially of children. Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Russian novelist - wrote of human suffering with psychological insight (1821-1881) Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment are his most well known works.

Leo Tolstoy

Russian novelist- combined realism in description and character development with an moralizing. Wrote War and Peace and Anna Karinena

miasmatic theory

The belief that people contract disease when they breathe the bad odors of decay and putrefying excrement. It was weakened when doctors and public health officials in the mid 1840's pointed out that bad drinking water was a culprit of contagion, and that disease was spread through filth and not caused by it.

seperate spheres

The division of labor by gender and the separation of home duties: the wife as mother and homemaker, the husband as wage earner

pasteurization

This process was developed by Louis Pasteur, who found that the living organisms growing in beverages as they fermented (or spoiled) could be suppressed by heating it. Allowed the consumption of beer, wine, and milk more safely.

Sigmund Freud

Viennese founder of psychoanalysis, and formulated the most striking analysis of family dynamics. He postulated that much of the human behavior is motivated by unconscious emotional needs. Rejected notion of God as wishful thinking.

naturalism

the belief-assumption- that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural (material) causes- rejects the notion of the metaphysical-supernatural (God).

Jeremy Bentham

(1748-1832) British theorist and philosopher who proposed utilitarianism, the principle that governments should operate on the basis of utility, or the greatest good for the greatest number.

Emile Zola

1868-giant of realist movement in literature, defended his violently criticized first novel against charges of pornography and corruption of morals-most known for seamy, animalistic view of working-class life-also wrote carefully researched stories featuring stock exchange, big department store, and army, as well as urban slums and bloody coal strikes-he sympathized with socialism-evident in his novel, Germinal

August Comte

A French philosopher who was a disciple of the utopian socialist Saint-Simon. He coined the phrase "sociology"; believed in the scientific improvement of society and human condition

electric streetcar

A development in transportation and helped create cleaner cities. Cheaper, faster, more dependable, and more comfortable than horse drawn cars. This mass transit also expanded cities, creating suburbs on the outskirts of cities.

natural selection

A natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment.

illegitimacy explosion

A period between 1750 and 1850 where one in three births was illegitimate in large cities of western, northern, and central Europe. Poverty caused many of the poor and propertyless to see nothing wrong with illegitimate children.

antiseptic principle

A principle developed by an English surgeon, Joseph Lister, - wound infection caused by bacteria, and that a chemical disinfectant could kill these bacteria upon contact with the wound- sterilization technique cut infections

Social Darwinsim

Application of Darwin's theory of natural selection to human society, arguing that poorer and weaker segments- Herbert Spencer- "survival of the fittest" - Mathusian approach - Served as justification for imperialism and racist policies

Realism/Naturalism

Artistic and literary trend of the latter 19th century. Focused on the harsh realities and uncertainties of life.

utilitarianism

Associated with Jeremy Bentham- believed that public problems ought to be dealt with on a rational, scientific basis. These people also believed in working for the "greatest good for the greatest number."

upper middle class- bourgeoisie

Composed mostly of successful business families (banking, industry, large scale commerce)- lost all traces of radicalism as they were drawn toward the aristocratic lifestyle- became more conservative

germ theory

Developed by Louis Pasteur- states that bacteria causes disease, heat kills bacteria; microorganisms are the cause of many diseases.

Oliver Twist

Dickens novel that addressed problems of poverty, the cruelty of the workhouse, abandoned children in industrial cities

Madame Bovary

Example of literary realism- a novel that is a fictionalized account of the life of Delphine Delamare, the adulterous wife of a country doctor who died of grief after deceiving and ruining him- Gustave Flaubert

Charles Darwin

Iinfluential of nineteenth century thinker- believed that all life had gradually evolved from a common ancestral origin in an unending "struggle for survival"- random mutations- natural selection. His theory was summarized in his work, On the Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection in 1859.

Edwin Chadwick

One of the commissioners charged with the administration of relief to paupers under the revised Poor Laws of Britain. A Benthamite, he believed that disease and death caused poverty, and that disease could be prevented by cleaning up the urban environment. His report caused Britain's first public health law, which created a health board and gave cities the authority to build modern sanitary systems.

Romanticism

a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

posivitism

a term describing Auguste Comte's belief that the world can be best understood through scientific inquiry- basis of the social sciences